Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy opened up by saying he was pleasantly surprised to see me here. I do not know why he would be. This is the third time I have been subject to appropriate questioning by the Dáil or by a committee of the House in regard to my role in this. The Deputy opened up with an assertion and I am not sure why he opened on that point, given my role in it.

I will move on to answering the three questions he put to me. First, in regard to the circular which he spent time reading out, the circular makes very clear the role of the judgment of the civil servant in question regarding whether the matter is being dealt with on the board of which he is a member. I met the civil servant in question and he told me his judgment was that this matter was being dealt with in the board, and that subsequently led to the engagement the Minister, Deputy Harris, and I have detailed on a number of occasions.

In regard to the process of this issue and how we got to this point, again, both myself and the Minister, Deputy Harris, on a number of different occasions have outlined when we knew what.

As opposed to the Deputy's allegation of dysfunctionality in regard to the matter, the way in which I have worked with my colleagues across all Government Departments has led to and is one of the reasons we have Project Ireland 2040 and why we have such a strengthened public capital plan. Both myself and the Minister have acknowledged on a number of occasions that there are clearly learnings and issues that developed in regard to this project, and we have outlined how we are looking to address them.

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